My point re: Iraq was in comparison of what someone can get worked up about vs. something real. Again: I understand that two sheepy smellin' cowpokes smoochin under mountain skies makes people crazy but I do wonder why they have no problem with SAW or all the other blood soaked films. Two guys in love seems like a pretty minor item. The single best reason to play or not play Sheepy Mountain is will people come to see it or not. If ticket buyers won't then I suggest not playing it, if ticket buyers will and it makes some people uncomfy and hot and bothered to where they just feel like kickin' somebody ...I'd play it.

Isn't there shows on TV like Queer Eye and Will and Grace: what's the big deal? It's not eactly earth shattering.
Michael Hurley
Impresario

Again, Mike brings up an interesting point.
I believe the reason the Horror/Slasher movies no longer raise an eyebrow is that Hollywood kept pushing the envelope year after year until now we are desensitized to this type of movie.
The general public accepts these movies as a normal genre.
Brokeback Mountain will be remembered as a pivitol movie in Hollywood's efforts to normalize homosexual behavior.
To this day, a majority of the general public think that killing people and cutting up their bodies is bad behavior and evil.
A majority of the general public see homosexuality as bad behavior and the Gay community who happen to have a strong presence in Hollywood want to change that view. That is why they go after the icon of Americana...the cowboy.
IN MY OPINION, Hollywood will always have a certain number of theatre owners willing to show anything as long as it makes money. The porn theatres of the 70s and 80s proved this.
Each one of us have to deal with this issue in our own personal way. I just hate the attempt to be manipulated by dishonest people.

Brokeback Mountain is playing on three screens in Milwaukee WI. I saw it Saturday night at the Oriental, its playing on two screens. It is also playing at the Marcus North Shore located in the Mequon area. The movie was awesome, and sold out. Everybody will enjoy it unless you are homophobic. I'd love to see it booked at our indie theatre in my conservative city. I'm sure that we would get a nice gross from it. However, there are not enough prints to go around.

The fear of the moral decline of our society is very real to some people. It sounds great to play it if it gets people hot and bothered and wanting to kick someone, but with me being brand new to the industry (gasp), I'm a little worried about paying the mortgage on this multi-million dollar project, especially after reading all the threads saying we're all doomed. I wish I had more guts, but I don't like being kicked. By the way, I haven't totally dismissed this film, I keep going back and forth on showing it. What I really wish is that it would GO AWAY and save me the stress. But I know another decision just like it will be down the pike waiting to take me on. I played Good Night and Good Luck and made next to nothing on this film, played it just because of the positive reviews. Whatever I choose with Brokeback, I risk pissing people off either way. But I especially don't want to upset many of my fellow Christians who have a less forgiving attitude toward homosexuality. I feel like it's a slippery slope if I don't play this film out of fear. I play every childrens film I'm offered and any Christian films (including the Passion Recut, all of 40 people came ALL WEEK). It makes no sense why a movie that shows lesbian sex and someones face getting blowtorched off (the box office winner this weekend) doesn't raise the same stink. Probably because the press is not involved. They have may have done more to hurt their precious film than help it by continuing to talk about it. Anyway, I love this site......it just took something too enticing as this topic to make me finally speak up.

This has been an interesting topic to say the least. As a theater owner I agree with mike -I show them I don't make them.
For me being in business isn't just about making money but also offering a variety of films for all tastes as long as they are R rated or less-I won't do NC-17. I don't want anyone to be able tell my politics by the films I show. I will continue to play both conservative films as well as liberal films if scheduling allows. I don't want to always play vanilla mainstream films. It is nice to play movies that will make you think, question, and consider. Passion and Million dollar baby did this when I saw them, as have other pictures. Having said this I will give Brokeback the same treatment as any other film we play
no better no worse.

I am like Mike. We don't make em we just show em. What really gets me with these controversial movies. Is theatres get hammered by the special interest groups about them. But once they hit DVD there is complete silence.... I realize (for now) theatres are the first to get them so are the first target. But I think it one sided and unfair to only hit on theatres for showing them. And not video stores and netflix for selling and renting them..

I am old enough to know this is always an on going thing in America with movies. Our first really big slam for a movie was for The Last Temptation of Christ in 88. We started recieving petition's in the mail from local churches. Stating they would boycott us if we showed it. And each had hundreds of signatures on them. This was quite scary! We had not even considered playing it at that point. But the publicity it was generating was priceless. So we booked it once we could get a print. We did split it with another movie and only played it during the late shows. And it did really well for us for the week we played it. And playing it never hurt our business.

Eventually it came out on video. And our local video store in our small town stocked it. I asked the owner if he recieved any petition's and he said no. I showed him the ones we got in the mail and he was real suprised. He never got anything or heard a peep out of anyone. And could not keep it on the shelf for the first month.

This stuff is always out there with the right and left pressure groups. Last year 04 it was Passion and F-911 as well as the almost annual anti Harry Potter thing about those movies turning the kids evil. Happened again just this past November.

There is also the way America takes things. The right seem more acceptable to violence and detest sex. The left seem more acceptable to sex and detest violence. With movie products released.

After reading some posts on movie sites at Yahoo amd others about Hostel. And peoples comments on the sex and violence. I am thinking if Brokeback was about two gay cowGIRLS instead of two gay cowBOYS we would not be hearing a fourth of the noise we are hearing now. Weird how things go sometimes in this country.

Anyway each theatre owner has to go with their own gut feeling on these controversial movies that will come down the pike. If they should or should not play them. Sometimes and some places have to self censor the product they will sell or not. Wal-Mart feels secure in doing it. They do it with books, CD's and DVD's.

Think this is the first time a hot topic like this has been on this forum. Interesting..........

TALK ABOUT A TEMPEST IN A TEACUP!... This thread sure has stirred up a LOT more controversy than this picture merits... Izzy's original posts didn't "smell right" to me, but I just thought maybe I'm too suspicious... IF all this was done as "groundwork" to promote "Brokeback," it worked!...

Anyone around when Killing of Sister George, Rosemary's Baby, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, Bob Carol Ted & Alice, The Exorcist, etc. were released OUGHT to remember the same kind of controversy they created, at the time... National church offices sent out letters to their members condemning these pictures (and others) and requesting their followers to boycott these movies and write protest letters... ALL this did was STIR UP interest in these films and INCREASE business... I played "em all and smiled all the way to the bank... NOT gonna play "Brokeback" because it won't draw here: now IF it was a couple of COWGIRLS, I'd be on the phone instead of typing this... Like any other picture, IF it'll draw in your market, go for it!...

Last week, distributor Focus Features set up 484 theaters for Brokeback Mountain's expansion, but on Friday that figure was revised to 483. The difference was one theater in Utah.

The Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy decided to pull director Ang Lee's cowboy love story at the last minute on Thursday night, despite having agreed to play the picture. The theater is owned by Larry H. Miller, who also owns the Utah Jazz, a National Basketball Association team.

"It's the most despicable practice that any exhibitor can do," Focus' head of distribution, Jack Foley, told Box Office Mojo. "It was a flagrant dismissal of a commitment, and without even a phone call. So I'm not in business with him anymore. It's a breach of contract. It's unethical. We can sue him."

Calls to the Megaplex 17 resulted in "no comments" in regards to why Brokeback Mountain was yanked. "You're not going to get any comment from us on that," said Dale Harvey, General Manager for Megaplex Theatres.

As of Sunday, Megaplex Theatres' Web site had Transamerica, a comedy-drama about a transsexual parent, listed for Jan. 20 in their "Coming Soon" section, but the movie has since vanished from their schedule.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been the Megaplex 17's top draw in recent weeks, grossing over $27,000 this past weekend. "It's a family show, and we generally do well with those," Harvey noted.

The Megaplex 17 is showing Hostel as well. Though No. 1 nationwide, the sex-and-gore saturated horror picture ranked fourth at the theater with $10,700.

Moviegoers in the Salt Lake City area still have a chance to see Brokeback Mountain as the picture is playing at three other theaters: the Broadway Center Cinemas in Salt Lake City, the Century 16 in South Salt Lake and the Cinemark 24 at Jordan Landing.

On the four-day New Year's frame, Brokeback Mountain earned $46,300 at the Broadway, landing among the top nationwide per-screen averages that weekend. For the weekend ending Jan. 8, the movie took in $18,823 there, still No. 1 in the complex, after Focus added the Century 16 and Cinemark 24 on Friday.

At the Century 16, Brokeback Mountain was also No. 1 with $12,741. Harvey pointed out, though, that the picture was No. 6 at the Cinemark 24, where it made $7,056.

Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain is one of the most talked about movies in theaters now, and the Megaplex 17's dismissal of the picture garnered them publicity, including a headline on the Drudge Report.

Despite the Utah slight, Brokeback Mountain rode into about 80 more markets over the weekend and roped $5.7 million. At 483 theaters, the movie averaged a bustling $11,856 per site, and the total sits at $22.4 million after 31 days of limited release. Its production budget was $14 million.

"We no longer have to worry about breaking down the homophobic barriers, and [Brokeback Mountain's] now breaking into the more mainstream boomer market," said Foley. Foley will accelerate the movie's expansion again, reaching over 700 theaters on Friday.

With a raft of rave reviews, awards and media hype, including frequent jokes on late night talk shows, Brokeback Mountain has spun its negative perception of being "that gay cowboy movie" into a positiveâ€”the label put the picture on the map and then marketing savvy and word-of-mouth took over.

"To me, on a personal basis, that [gay cowboy label] annoyed me, but it was a liability and an asset," Foley said. "It certainly identified it. The good news is that the gay community and the art house audience saw it, and, now, the suburbs are just as solid. In most of the new theaters, the film ranks No. 1, and these are commercial houses."

Elsewhere, Brokeback Mountain's lead actor, Heath Ledger, went from repressed homosexual to legendary womanizer with his other movie in release, Casanova. The Lasse Hallstrom-directed period comedy wooed $4 million from its nationwide expansion to 1,004 theaters. The picture has captured a soft $5 million in 15 days.

Among Brokeback Mountain's presumed Oscar competitors, Universal's Munich went wide as well, grossing $7.6 million at 1,485 locationsâ€”up 953 from last week. With $25.4 million in 17 days, Steven Spielberg's $70 million action drama about Israel's response to the Palestinian terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics is on track to be the director's lowest grossing picture since Amistad in 1997.

On the other hand, Match Point is on course to be Woody Allen's highest-grossing movie in years, although the bar is a tiny fraction of Mr. Spielberg's. The DreamWorks-distributed thriller scored $2.7 million in its expansion to 304 venues for $3.6 million in 12 days, and a nationwide release to over 700 sites is scheduled for Jan. 20.

Oh yeah...... what about the homicidal western gay loser The Rock played in Be Cool? I don't remember any canceled bookings over his casually beating a guy to death with a baseball bat. Now if he had smooched him...........
Michael Hurley
Impresario

I posted earlier in this thread suggesting, I guess with too much subtly, that we needed to stick to the topic of this website, and that is the movie business.
As Mike so eloquently pointed out, we have been meeting here for seven years to talk about this business we love and love to, at times, hate. Anyone who has read my posts can guess my political leanings and anytime Iâ€™ve made a point of them on this board, I ended up regretting it. Not that that is going to stop me nowâ€¦.
Izzytheater22, you may not understand that this board is comprised of many people who are very different. Starting a post by calling any people on this forum â€œoutdated and small minded operatorsâ€ is just rude. By doing that any conversation regarding this topic will be steeped in argument. There are a lot of people here whose politics I disagree with, but if they asked for help and I could give it, I would, because thatâ€™s who we are here. Who they pray to or how they feel about gays is meaningless to me when it comes to helping a fellow or female operator.
Orphum, once you get your postings into the double digits, you may learn sprinkling your posts with snippets from Bill Oâ€™Rileyâ€™s latest diatribe just pisses people off, and not just the people who disagree with you. For the record, I completely disagree with your comment â€œSo, how do we then determine which community , on the whole, has a higher moral standard. I think we can all agree that the standard for determining these things has been the the Bible for hundreds and hundreds of years.â€ Maybe for you. The communities Iâ€™ve lived in have been governed by what serves the greatest number of community members the bestâ€”and this is framed within the CONSTITUTION. If you stood up in my town and tried to pass a law based on the Bible, youâ€™d be reminded by many of the people who lived under the Taliban what a theocracy can do for you. A brief walk back in our history-- less than â€œHundreds of yearsâ€--had biblical laws burning AMERICANS at the stake for consorting with the devil.
You also offered: â€œmajority of the general public see homosexuality as bad behavior and the Gay community who happen to have a strong presence in Hollywood want to change that view.â€ No denying the general Hollywood community wants to see the homosexual community with the same rights as the heterosexual community. As for the rest of this country, take a walk thru Google. Most opinion poles are very close on this issue. Very soon the people who abhor homosexual rights will be lumped in the same group as those who denied black people the right to vote a few short decades ago--and that is my opinion.
Now, much as Izzy, Iâ€™m done writing about this.
I WILL play BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (gee, I hope you were sitting down) because it is an Ang Lee film. This is the director that brought us EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, PUSHING HANDS, CROUCHING TIGER, and THE WEDDING BANQUET. All films I loved and I know my customers want to see. The gay issue is irrelevantâ€”as it should be.